Well, wondering if anyone is interested but hey..............I think its interesting of course.

So, we had our vote yesterday..............after 3 weeks worth of an "election" campaign, with 3 live televised debates (for the first time) and the 3 main party leaders traveling the country to garner votes.

Just to note, its all very quick and focused here compared to America..............I mean each parties manifestos and topics for discussion were the economy, immigration, housing, welfare, the euro, education, pensions, jobs and basically the things that actually matter...............and not things like race, sexual orientation, abortion, religion.............none of that comes into it, nor is it discussed in political debate, nor does it come into the minds of the British voter.

So just to get that clear.................the interesting thing is that the results have yielded whats called a "Hung Parliment".

What this basically means is that no party, bearing in mind we have a multi party system, has an outright majority and hence cannot form a government to proceed with.

The Conservatives (dont be put off by that, they are nothing like American Conservatives) have won the most seats in Parliment..............Labour (this is the party thats been in control for the last 13 years) the 2nd most and then the Liberal Democrats way behind in 3rd.

So whats happening now, considering we do not currently HAVE a government.................is that one of the 2 main parties will now have to make a deal/enlist the Lib Dems seats/members of parliment to effectively JOIN their party, thus creating a majority..............and then they can then present this government to the Queen and she can approve it.

Labour will not be able to do this though because even if they won over/included all the seats won by the Lib Dems, they still would not have a viable majority.............so its basically going to be a Conservative/Lib Dem government.

Obviously, the deal itself will be the Conservatives reigning in some of their policies to align more with what the Lib Dems want, so they can obtain the support and seats in Parliment.
.
.
.
Alot of info there.
.
.
.
What this essentially means is that NOTHING can be done for quite some time..............these deals will have to be struck and the formation/presentation of the new government will have to hammered out and down..............all taking some time.

A great day for politics if you will, because of how much they are going to have to work together and reach compromises..............but not for Britain because this is going to take time and be quite chaotic, leaving us in the general sh*t we are in right now whilst this is all sorted out.
.
.
.
More points of interest are that polling stations across the country were having to TURN PEOPLE AWAY!.............we have one day to vote, and voting closes at 10pm.............this is how its always been and for some reason it all went horribly wrong last night.

They are saying that there could be a legal challenge because of this, and the result of that would more than likely be a RE-VOTE!.............chaos.

However, I dont think that will happen............simply because the deadline is the deadline, its always been that way, so its not the fault of the organisers that people decided to show up so late.

Anywho, if anyone can dissect anything interesting out of that..............then feel free to get stuck into the madness with me!

Ohh yeah..............one more thing.............and this is rather important/interesting.

From this chaos, from the fact that the British public almost has used their vote to punish the political system (thats the words of the experts) by not leaning towards a majority............and thus forcing them to work together and not just be screaming at each in the house of lords.

There WILL be a big voting reform................ie: a big change in how our democracy "works"..................I says "works" because no democracy actually works in the truest sense of the word............but I digress.

So yeah, all this will mean that our entire voting system, and perhaps even party political structure may change as a result of this madness.

Don't know how much i can contribute to the discussion but i saw a news article about Daniel Radcliffe throwing his support behind the lib democratics. Strange for someone so young to get caught up in the turmoil. But i guess he's either a young,educated and passionate chap who caught onto a party at a young age (probably pushed in the direction by his parents) or he either got a big oversized cheque for his support (cause harry potter could be a real vote getter)

anyways mate. I feel for ya on the hung parliment. So many ideas put forward but nothing gets off the ground cause no majority can come to a decision

PAWNO wrote:Don't know how much i can contribute to the discussion but i saw a news article about Daniel Radcliffe throwing his support behind the lib democratics. Strange for someone so young to get caught up in the turmoil. But i guess he's either a young,educated and passionate chap who caught onto a party at a young age (probably pushed in the direction by his parents) or he either got a big oversized cheque for his support (cause harry potter could be a real vote getter)

anyways mate. I feel for ya on the hung parliment. So many ideas put forward but nothing gets off the ground cause no majority can come to a decision

LOL..............jesus, why is that the rest of the world thinks Harry Potter is so important to English people?

Seriously, its JUST a film..............no-one cares..............it does not represent or mean anything to people, especially when it comes to things like political backing.

Pretty much the only positive feeling I have towards my country is the way in which politics and voting is SOLELY focused on the REAL issues.............not slandering of others, not who has the best celebrity backing, not even who has the most money............because our election only lasts a few weeks, so it doesnt really matter who has money, everyone gets an equal share.

So yeah, Daniel Radcliffe will just be someone whos voicing his opinion..............which hes entitled too of course.............but that seriously doesnt mean anything and wont influence any kind of results, shown exactly by the fact that the Lib Dems have LOST more seats than was projected.

Thats another point Im quite proud of too............the televised debates began and everyone was really high on the Lib Dem leader, Nick Clegg, saying that he had "charmed" the nation................then when the vote comes, the Lib Dems performs even worse than the last elected..............thus showing that the British people care nothing about what spin and charming you can do on TV.

Anyway, ohh by the way Pawno, I wasnt having a go at you there..............just wanted to clear that up.

The Hung Parliment though...................I think its a good thing, because lets face it.............nothing radical was going to happen soon anyway to change the major issues we have, so this situation will cause the politicians to have to learn to resolves stuff TOGETHER, rather than bullying others members of parliment into it.

Also, y'all may not know................but we can call an election AT ANY TIME!..............so what they are saying now is that they will begin trying to sift through all this madness, and then just dissolve that government and call another election next year.

I was about to post about this. I've been following the elections quite a bit, and I'm SHOCKED about how much the Lib Dems have fallen. I mean, it looked pretty clear (to me, at least) that Nick Clegg was the brightest spot of the campaign... and to not only fall short of expectations, but LOSE spots in the parliament...

Probably one of the craziest outcomes I've ever seen in any election (other that Italy constantly voting Berlusconi, that is... )

btw, welcome to my world, Bigs. We've been living with that "hung parliament" for years (6 and counting, and it happened before as well), because our election system allows for that to happen quite easily. And, frankly, it's hell. All it leads is for politicians to reach agreements of... let's say, non-agression, so they can keep their votes and say "hey, we never gave up on our ideals". Which means, basically, no change at all for the country. They agree to... you know, save face. Time after time after time. And that ends up with the population fed up and asking for their heads... but with no real option in countries like ours, with just two big political sides that everybody votes for.

TMC wrote:I was about to post about this. I've been following the elections quite a bit, and I'm SHOCKED about how much the Lib Dems have fallen. I mean, it looked pretty clear (to me, at least) that Nick Clegg was the brightest spot of the campaign... and to not only fall short of expectations, but LOSE spots in the parliament...

Probably one of the craziest outcomes I've ever seen in any election (other that Italy constantly voting Berlusconi, that is... )

btw, welcome to my world, Bigs. We've been living with that "hung parliament" for years (6 and counting, and it happened before as well), because our election system allows for that to happen quite easily. And, frankly, it's hell. All it leads is for politicians to reach agreements of... let's say, non-agression, so they can keep their votes and say "hey, we never gave up on our ideals". Which means, basically, no change at all for the country. They agree to... you know, save face. Time after time after time. And that ends up with the population fed up and asking for their heads... but with no real option in countries like ours, with just two big political sides that everybody votes for.

Probably thats why I was so excited about Clegg's rising...

Wow, thanks for saying something man...............nice to have someone whos willing/wanting to talk about something other than the same old boring sh*t here nowadays.

The Lib Dems and Clegg..............I wasnt shocked..............all the hype was all just smoke and mirrors from the TV debates.

I mean its the first time weve ever had them, and also the first time the Lib Dems have been so visible and on a par with the other 2 parties.

So as I said up there, Im quite glad that they performed so badly (as far as the "predictions" said) because it means that the people/voters were not swayed/influenced by the spin and TV exposure..............which is rare of course and not the way of the world these days.

I dont think we are going to have a Hung Parliment for long, certainly not in terms of Spain's level..............jesus, I cant believe that is what has happened/happening............how can that be? how can it be allowed to carry on for that long? was it 2 straight elections that caused it? cuz 6 years like that is an awfully long time to have such a situations.

I saw a quote yesterday which I found quite funny =

"We are the envy of the world right now...............because we have NO GOVERNMENT!"

The biggest thing thats caused all this is the fact that Scotland and Northern Ireland are involved in our voting totals, and yet they vote no-where near the parties that actually will be governing them.

They vote for parties like Sinn-Fein, The Ulster Unionists, The Scottish National Party.............and all what is considered "Other Parties"

So given that..............and given that the Conservatives actually won this election with roughly the same number of votes that Labour won with in 1997 (which was a landslide win for them that year, because there was not many wins for the "Other Parties")..............the sole reason we are in this mess is because of the amount of seats that we were won by parties that are not going to get anywhere near winning, so it takes away from the main parties getting any kind of majority.

For instance, my voting catchment voted in the FIRST EVER Green Party member of Parliment..............which tells you alot about the people in my city and their ability to not look past what they want for their tiny area of the country, and be realistic about what is actually going to happen and help the country.............what good does having ONE Green MP, out of 500 or so, in the House of Commons?

So yeah, big reform in our voting system is about the biggest/main thing that is being talked about right now..............cuz we are going to have a Conservative/Lib Dem government soon, that we know for sure...........Clegg is being called "The King Maker".

I say you see how long you can go without a government, then you can show the world that Anarchy can work!
but only in a country made up of extremely polite people.
But wait, Spain somehow is managing to make it work...

I wish I could weigh in on this. I'll do some homework and comeback later.

Last edited by Money on Sat May 08, 2010 10:28 am, edited 1 time in total.

bigstrads wrote:The Lib Dems and Clegg..............I wasnt shocked..............all the hype was all just smoke and mirrors from the TV debates.

I mean its the first time weve ever had them, and also the first time the Lib Dems have been so visible and on a par with the other 2 parties.

So as I said up there, Im quite glad that they performed so badly (as far as the "predictions" said) because it means that the people/voters were not swayed/influenced by the spin and TV exposure..............which is rare of course and not the way of the world these days.

I don't think it's due to people not being swayed or anything like that. Actually, I believe it's more for people being afraid of changing their vote. Like "gee, I'd really like to vote for this Clegg guy, but Lib Dems???. And I've voted conservative (or labour, doesn't matter) for twenty years... nah, I can't do it".

That's the real problem: the people that can't think and focus about change. Like they want change to happen, but they want OTHERS to be responsible.

bigstrads wrote:I dont think we are going to have a Hung Parliment for long, certainly not in terms of Spain's level..............jesus, I cant believe that is what has happened/happening............how can that be? how can it be allowed to carry on for that long? was it 2 straight elections that caused it? cuz 6 years like that is an awfully long time to have such a situations.

Well, it's been like this during the last socialist (although more close to your Labour party) term. So four years from the previous term and two of the current one, with two more years to go.

They reached an agreement to name Zapatero the President (not Prime Minister), and they have to reach agreements to get votes for EVERYTHING. It's ridiculous. Not to say lots of laws that have been passed are utterly ridiculous, because everybody has to change them in some way to vote for them... so they almost have to negotiate law by law and cede in certain fields to minor parties for almost any kind of action the parliament does.

bigstrads wrote:I saw a quote yesterday which I found quite funny =

"We are the envy of the world right now...............because we have NO GOVERNMENT!"

Enjoy it while you can, mate...

bigstrads wrote:The biggest thing thats caused all this is the fact that Scotland and Northern Ireland are involved in our voting totals, and yet they vote no-where near the parties that actually will be governing them.

They vote for parties like Sinn-Fein, The Ulster Unionists, The Scottish National Party.............and all what is considered "Other Parties"

That's exactly the same thing that happens here. Lots of local parties, the biggest ones being in the Basque Country and Catalonia (although there's even one for these f*cking islands, and even you can find one for EACH island that wants it to be independent ), get thousands of votes there, so they become key for the winner to be able to do anything, because, if they do not get at least 266 representatives (I think that's the number... but it's close if not), which doesn't happen often in a country with just two big national parties, the party that wins the election is held for ransom by those minor parties and won't be able to govern without their help.

bigstrads wrote:So given that..............and given that the Conservatives actually won this election with roughly the same number of votes that Labour won with in 1997 (which was a landslide win for them that year, because there was not many wins for the "Other Parties")..............the sole reason we are in this mess is because of the amount of seats that we were won by parties that are not going to get anywhere near winning, so it takes away from the main parties getting any kind of majority.

For instance, my voting catchment voted in the FIRST EVER Green Party member of Parliment..............which tells you alot about the people in my city and their ability to not look past what they want for their tiny area of the country, and be realistic about what is actually going to happen and help the country.............what good does having ONE Green MP, out of 500 or so, in the House of Commons?

So yeah, big reform in our voting system is about the biggest/main thing that is being talked about right now..............cuz we are going to have a Conservative/Lib Dem government soon, that we know for sure...........Clegg is being called "The King Maker".

It's amazing. Our election system has been like that for more than 20 years and nobody cares about changing it... it happens ONCE in the UK and you've realized it doesn't work... That's called civilization...

(It's not like our political leaders haven't realized that much... but the two big parties are not willing to change anything, because it would mean that their votes wouldn't get them as many representatives as with the current system... and they prefer to ruin the country before losing their share of power).

Money Morrow wrote:But wait, Spain somehow is managing to make it work...

Not really... but what can we do?. Dismantle the country? ("look, we're french now" )